F1: 2014 Season Set To Kick Into Gear At Jerez On Tuesday

The F1 season officially gets underway when testing commences at Jerez Tuesday morning.

The four-day session in Spain is followed by a break of three weeks prior to two further four-day stints in Bahrain late in February, giving teams just 12 days in total to hone their machinery.

Thus far only one car has been physically seen by the world’s media, with Toro Rosso having unveiled its car in the pitlane at 1730 today. The Ferrari, McLaren, Force India, Sauber, Williams and Lotus have only been revealed in officially issued photographs or computer images, and there has been no sign at all yet of the Red Bull, Mercedes, Caterham and Marussia.

With Lotus absent from this test and STR having shown its car today aside we will thus get the first proper look at nine new cars on Tuesday morning, either in formal photo shoots just before the session starts, or when the cars drive out of the garage.

Only three cars have already done any running, with Mercedes and Force India having completed brief shakedown runs at Silverstone, and Toro Rosso doing the same at Misano.

Some showers are expected this week, but if there is not sufficient rain tire running Pirelli plans to artificially soak the track on Friday.